[OLD] Empire Updates Log [Jun 26th, 2013]

This log will be brief but I will try my best to keep it updated. Big player impacting changes almost always have a thread with more information, look for them in the Empire News forum.

26-JUN-2013

Expanded group system to include XP Sharing and Group Buffs/Perks.

Survival Changes:

Custom Mobs no longer spawn close to another one of same type.

Fixed bug in min spawn distance from player (previously only spawned CLOSE to player)

Netherhounds Speed bonus reduced from 6 to 3.

Uncommon custom mobs now despawn like normal mobs. Rares will not despawn still.

Res 607 is finally unclaimable...

22-JUN-2013

Groups feature released!Players can now group together for easier chatting.

Survival updates - Respawn timers are now world based instead of server wide.

21-JUN-2013

More tweaks to Survival update

Enraged Creeper added

18-JUN-2013

Survival Update! Difficulty on all worlds raised to NORMAL

Zombies have been modified from vanilla to break wooden doors in normal mode. Secure your base!

Custom monsters have been added to the wastelands and wild...

Custom mobs drop new special items! Adventure out and find some new items!

22-FEB-2013

Fixed issues with arrows not firing correctly

Fixed issues with itemframes randomly falling off

Fixed issues with paintings just being really weird

Fixed issues with Ghast being able to attack you while out of visible range (Now will always be visible)

21-FEB-2013

Supporters and staff now have colored name tags! (No Jack, we're not using TagAPI =P this was simpler )

Entity limiter will no longer kill mobs that have picked up players items.

More performance changes - should no longer lag spike anymore

Entity Range change - Lowered the distance players can SEE entities - This will greatly reduce client side lag, especially in the shop world. You should not be affected much by your neighbors residence now.

Shop world should no longer lag anyones client! Those item frames will now only show when your close to them

These Entities are still there and unaffected gameplay wise, just not being sent to the client when not near them to optimize performance.

14-FEB-2013

New shop released! /shop and new town portals in place to get to it. Old shop removed.

Fixed issue with items flowing in water being deactivated when out of range.

Other activation improvements to ensure no impact to gameplay.

the -move blocking all actions on Residence reverted.

Town will now receive broadcasts when a new player has finished the last question of the tutorial, so players can go greet the new player when they exit.

Bats are now spawnable in town from Eggs bought in /shop.

Bats and Squid will not despawn in town.

12-FEB-2013

Move flag optimizations for Residence

-move on a residence now puts you back a few blocks before you stepped on it, instead of teleporting you to some other location (It will still teleport you to the far location if it cant reliably figure out how to put you back)

-move will now block players from doing other things on the residence such as using shops or accessing chests, so that stuff on the edge of your residence is also protected (reverted)

Fixed nether bug where you would get stuck above bedrock under certain circumstances

Added new world gen plugin to pre-generate chunks

Fixed an error where bedrock was deleted on res reset (another reset will fix it)

Fixed a bug where it warned you when removing build perms (like you had added permission)

Added some missing items to shops (such as ferns).

7-Mar-2012

Added new command /fun for smp3.

Utopia players can now set beds as spawn location by right clicking (even without night because utopia is night free).

Fixed colored signs

Added a warning note when you are replying to a forum thread that has been inactive for over 30 days.

5-Mar-2012

Removed the ability to open a shop chest by clicking on the sign. This will remove confusion of how to destroy a shop sign, and also fixes some bugs where you can glitch into chests if you have build permissions.

Changed /purchase vault, to /vault, the /purchase system being phased out because animals moved to eggs.

Upgraded to MC 1.2.3

Temporarily disabled vault while we are upgrading servers to prevent people trying to take MC 1.2 items into MC 1.1 servers.

Temporarily disabled fire charge usage both by right clicking and shooting from a dispenser. This will stay disabled until methods for it are added to the Bukkit api.

2-Mar-2012

Added initial system to detect invalid emails (bounce backs) and show a message to the user next time they are on the site.

1-Mar-2012

Changed eggification to need the build flag instead of the use flag.

Fixed an eggification bug involving multiple clicks.

Updated Empire Guide mistakes and grammar errors.

Added Eggification section to Guide, removed purchases section.

Removed the recommended server for new players from top of site and top of guide, it didn't really make sense anymore.

29-Feb-2012

Prepared all custom EMC code for Bukkit r5 and MC 1.2. This was a huge rewrite of many things because of changes by both Mojang and Bukkit.

Fixed a bug where new users would not get tutorial rewards if they earned rupees during or before the tutorial (such as referring a friend, voting, etc).

Added support for spawner eggs to shops (future updates)

Blocked trees and mushrooms from growing if any part will be outside a res

Added support of villagers to Town

Added new eggification update (see news post)

Removed old /purchase animal because you can now purchase animals in Store

Updated the new user tutorial, changed the question about smp1 to be about locking items in the wild.

20-Feb-2012

Implemented a new system where players can report trouble makers. Details in a news thread.

Splash potions that are damaging can no longer be used on other players (PVP)

You can no longer add a slab to stone slabs that are not in your residence

14-Feb-2012

Pre-launch of smp6 to Diamond supporters. Will launch publicly tomorrow.

Fixed a site bug where calculating ranks for TEXP was causing very slow page load times.

13-Feb-2012

Experience Points (and the Levels that go with them) are now cross-server. So if you earn XP on one server, then join another you will still have it! IMPORTANT: The FIRST server you sign-in on will be set as your XP balance. All XP you may have had on other servers will be lost.

Now you don't lose ANY Experience Points when you die. This also means you don't drop XP orbs on death.

Introducing TEXP (Total Earned Experience Points) and new leaderboards section to go with it, see news article for more information.

Dragon eggs no longer teleport when clicked (cause it was stupid).

Changed the timer so you can reset/unclaim a residence once every hour rather than once every 24 hours.

Added rupees balance to the "Signed in as.." box on the top of the sidebar.

Added TEXP to the "Signed in as.." box on the top of the sidebar.

Added TEXP to the member views (both the popup and the full page profile view).

10-Feb-2012

Added birthday page to members section on site.

06-Feb-2012

Fixed access signs not being usable in protected areas outside of Town (like Nether Spleef on smp1).

Added support for a new staff group for non moderator staff members

Change Senior Moderator title to Senior Staff

Fixed an error when trying to ban or kick a player with special characters

04-Feb-2012

Fixed the behavior of access signs so they act like locked signs. This means the sign now has to be directly above an item for the access sign to work. The reason for this fix was that people were accidentally giving out access to things they didn't intend.

Old access signs that don't have "[ ACCESS ]" on the top line will no longer work. TO fix it just remove the sign and make a new one (the system automatically changes it to "[ ACCESS ]" since a few releases ago).

Charcoal can now be sold in shops!

03-Feb-2012

Migrated all servers to new EMC platform

02-Feb-2012

Launched smp5

Released the next generation of the EMC platform, currently only smp5 is running on this platform, others will be migrated shortly.

28-Jan-2012

Small bug fixes and Bukkit update

Added a bunch of logs to Square

25-Jan-2012

Initial release of the new staff tools, code named "square"

14-Jan-2012

Upgraded to MC 1.1

Fixed a bunch of bugs related to MC 1.1 and nether portals

06-Jan-2012

Bunch of Empire Guide updates including a new section on locking items.

Increased the confirm delay for a residence reset or reclaim to 20 seconds (used to be 10).

Fixed the nasty bug that would kill you if you tried to teleport inside a boat or mine cart.

Changed it so you have to have both build AND container flags to place an [ ACCESS ] sign in a residence.

Added a new "Periodic Reset Area" (yellow border) to the live map to show the area we reset from time to time.

Fixed the bug where you would be kicked by MC with a message about hacking when entering a residence you don't have move permission in.

Added the ability to lock chests and other items outside town by placing a sign directly above it with the first line "lock"

04-Jan-2012

Fixed a FireFox 9 bug (actually it is a FF bug but I put in a work around) where you couldn't post new forum threads or start private conversations.

03-Jan-2012

Live Map performance improvements

Bunch of Live Map bug fixes

Changed open res color to orange instead of blue (got lots of requests to make it stand out more)

Increased max connections to live map, added a 30 minute inactive auto close (sucks up server usage when people leave live map open)

01-Jan-2012

Fixed bug where TNT didn't work for Diamond supporters

HUGE chat changes. Only local chat (100 blocks radius) in the Wilderness and Nether now. Renamed Global channel to Town and changed its color to red (to match Towns color).

Improved some of the messaging with chat commands.

Improved /chat who, so that is actually shows who is listening on your channel (including if they are in range for local chat).

Added /chat because it is easier to remember (and makes more sense) than /ch (but /ch will still work).

Added new in-game command: /help channels

Added the ability to turn off the random tips with /tip off

Added new automated spammer ban system

Added current world to /pinfo if they are connected to the same server.

Added a big fat red messages that warns you when you give build permissions to a residence

30-Dec-2011

Added a new random tip system that will display a random tip every 20 minutes. You can also get a random tip with /tip

Fall damage remove on entire Utopia server

Hunger damage removed on entire Utopia server

Gold supporters can now have 2 residences in the Empire

Diamond supporters can now have 3 residences in the Empire

Gold supporters can now claim a Utopia lot if they wish

Fixed a bug where Diamond supporters could not claim a residence after unclaiming one

Various small fixes with memory management

28-Dec-2011

Added a new forum called Community Marketplace for advertising in-game shops and services.

27-Dec-2011

Vault now supports enchanted items! Sorry it took so long it was a pain in the but.

You can now sell enchanted items in chest shops! Use /iteminfo and put the ID it gives you on the last line of the sign.

Improved potion selling in chest shops. To sell potions use /iteminfo and put the ID it gives you on the last line of the sign.

Added a confirmation promt with information when buying enchanted items or potions.

Lots of various chest shop updates and bug fixes.

Improved the chest shop /iteminfo command.

You can now buy squids with /purchase

20-Dec-2011

Added the another website to vote on for another 50r (see Rupees section).

Fixed staff online box to show moderators.

19-Dec-2011

Fixed a TNT bug for staff.

Changed it so a new player has to join the website and see the guide before they can even sign-into an Empire server.

18-Dec-2011

Bunch of site fixes, mostly stupid Internet Explorer messing up the front page. Cleaned up the front page so it looks cleaner. Removed the social share buttons under each post on the home page because it was causing really slow page load times.

16-Dec-2011

Touched up a bunch of sections in the guide.

15-Dec-2011

Upgraded to official Bukkit release (about time) this fixes a ton of bugs such as XP not being displayed properly, ender pearl throwing, etc.

Fixed a bug with residence [access] signs if the playername was longer than 15 characters, from now on you just put the first 15 characters of the players name.

Gold Supporters (and above) can now customize the enter and leave messages to their residence(s)

There is a bug in MC where you can get stuck above the bedrock in the Nether. If this happens you can now use /town to get out.

Added the ability to use "FREE" for buy or sell price on shop signs.

Improved the error checking when placing a shop sign (mostly on validating the cost).

Fixed Ghasts not doing damage in the nether.

Added new Diamond Supporters perk, they can now use TNT including in Town (Diamond supporters see the supporters forums for how to enable it in your res).

Fixed a bug where a players group would not change when they upgraded (or downgraded) to a supporter until they disconnected and reconnected.

13-Dec-2011

Added the ability to vote on MC top sites and earn rupees. You can find this in the rupees section of the site.

12-Dec-2011

Disabled ender pearls because of a duplication glitch.

11-Dec-2011

Completely rewrote the rupees system from scratch.

BREAKING CHANGE: rupees no longer support fractions (like 1.20) and those shop signs will stop working.

Added new section on site to view rupee account history.

Added the alias /r for /rupees

Remove the /rupees top and /rupees rank

Added system to support giving away more free rupees (will come in the next couple days).

Fixed a bug in player chest shops were someone with build permission could make a store on your lot, but the owner could not remove the sign.

10-Dec-2011

Changed MySQL replication to add new slave for website to leverage game server data quicker (in preparation for other updates).

04-Dec-2011

Launched smp3

Fixed logos on bottom left of Live Maps and added the server name to it

Added new NoLagg plugin that fixes things that cause lag such as TNT. TNT can now be mass exploded safely! (Not all nolagg features are enabled)

Added new /qm shortcut to @, so now @t foo will send message to town chat and @l foo to local

29-SEP-2012

Bukkit upgrade to 1.3.2 RB1.0 - Few bug fixes

TNT Bug fix - Can no longer destroy the road, can be used at edge of residence now.

Dragon Egg collection change: Now is collected by simply clicking the egg if you are the owner and will be placed into inventory.

23-SEP-2012

Updated Server to no longer need reboots

Fixed crop growth rate issues

21-SEP-2012

Added death messages to show to nearby players! Can be turned off by turning status (join/leaves) off.

Attempted fix on the XP Display on Respawn

Server update to hopefully fix lag issues and stop the reboots.

13-SEP-2012

Server Upgrade - Should hopefully fix chunk rollback problem.

11-SEP-2012

Released Entity Limiter to control animal and monsters to reduce lag.

30-AUG-2012

Released official "Residence Chat". Now in official Empire style and works for /ch who and /ch r.

24-APR-2012

Reworked the site queue daemon to process less than every 3 seconds, instead of every 60 seconds.

22-APR-2012

Fixed a huge performance bug in Empire Residence (on block physics).

Chat settings are now cross-server. For example if you ignore someone you will never hear from them again on any server. Or for example if you turned chat off on one server it would be off when you joined another.

Ignore feature is now smart enough to COMPLETELY ignore the player (including leave/join messages), and they are permanent!

Fixed a bug where people could get around being ignored with private messages.

New feature, /chat status [on|off]. If you turn this off you will no longer see player join/leave messages, when a new player completes the tutorial, or when players get banned / kicked.

New feature, /reply, that sends a private message to the LAST player that sent you one.

New shortcut, /c, that works with all chat commands just like /chat.

New shortcut, @, that works the same as /tell. For example “@JustinGuy Hello!”.

New shortcut, @@, that works just like /reply, so for example “@@I got your message, on my way”.

Fixed a bug where people super far away in the wild could chat with people anywhere in the wild.

Greatly improved the performance of the entire chat system (thanks to d1223m for help with distance calculations for local channel).

If you are in a private conversation you no longer get booted from it when the player disconnects. Instead it will just tell you they are no longer connected when you try to send a message.

You can no longer ignore a player that doesn’t exist on Empire Minecraft (fake names).

If you are a supporter you are now automatically in the supporter channel.

Improved /chat who, so that it is a true list of who will hear your messages.

You can no longer leave/join channels, not many people ever used this and the resources saved to not keep track of it were enormous. Also once d1223m has the EMC UI mod ready this will allow you to place channels in tabs.

Improved the residence derelict system to make mass reclaiming of derelict residences easier for staff.

25-Nov-2011

Added new /park that works on smp2 to go the new Empire park

Bunch of small bug fixes

Brewing Stands are now protected under the container flag in residences

Enchantment Tables are now protected under the use flag in residences

Cauldrons are now protected under the use flag in residences

Jukeboxs are now protected under the container flag in residences

Changed the color of /purchase info descriptions from white to blue

Removed old sign-in message about worlds resetting

23-Nov-2011

Update to Minecraft 1.0

Every smp server now has one "normal" world called "wilderness"

Changed /town so that it takes you to the Town spawn, and to get help on Town commands you now use /help town

Added /wild that works just like /wilderness

Added support for new type of server "Utopia"

Added new /vault command for free vault access in Utopia

Added new secondary group feature to prepare for chat mod privileges

Tweaked the idle kicker to prevent a rare case where someone would TP to their res exactly on both checks and get kicked.

Tweaked the idle kicker so that when you are chatting you will not be kicked.

Changed countdown to be every minute for shutdown or restart.

Added new /res default command that resets all your flags (permissions) back to defaults.

Disabled TNT server wide on every server.

Rotated live map so that north is still up (the directions changed in MC 1.0).

Improved the Live Map quality and added the ability to zoom out further.

21-Nov-2011

Updated the guide to have a section about the Live Map.

Tested the Empire plugin against the latest DEV Bukkit build for 1.0. So far so good, just waiting on a stable bukkit release.

19-Nov-2011

Updated the servers section on the site to add more info to the server detail page. Also added a mini server list on the right of the home page.

13-Nov-2011

Added a new idle kick system that kicks players who have been idle for at least 10 minutes.

12-Nov-2011

Updated the servers section on the site so you can click on a server and get more details (like who exactly is online).

11-Nov-2011

Implemented a new EMC Api to support the new servers section on the site.

Added the new servers section on the site, only the overview is done right now.

09-Nov-2011

Launched server smp2

Added the ability to see who is on another server, such as /who smp2

Fixed a bug where the countdown timer to next day (on sign-in) would never go below one hour.

08-Nov-2011

Added a bunch of new code to support cross-server functionality.

Added new group "Senior Moderator".

Removed the command /me

Shortened the length of the sign-in message (removed the text "on this server").

Fixed a bug where kick and ban reasons were always lower case.

Changed "First Empire Sign-in" in /pinfo to be days/hours/seconds ago rather than a time stamp.

Removed comma after last name in /who list

Fixed a bug where you would get kicked if you tp to a residence where you don't have access.

Added new /purchase system (details later)

Added new cross-server vault system.

Added opening of vault to /purchase system.

05-Nov-2011

Bug fixes from yesterdays release.

Supporters will now receive their daily sign-in bonus at midnight ET if they didn't sign-in that day.

04-Nov-2011

Complete rewrite of permissions system, help system, player management and session system, bans and moderation system, in an effort to reduce lag and in preparation for future changes. Although this was a LARGE change most of it does not impact the player experience.

Changed daily sign-in bonus message to be more obvious (pink and under the motd) and to give you a countdown if you already received it today.

Supporters no longer get supporter bonus at midnight ET, instead they get it as part of the daily sign-in bonus. This was changed to address a lot of confusion.

Changed temp ban messages so they show how long you are banned (in days/hours/minutes rather than ET time stamp).

Fixed a ban system bug where players banned with a long reason would get an error instead of the ban message.

Fixed a bug in /visit open - where players with all number usernames were being reported as open residences.

Upgraded the /who list to be a little cleaner.

Fixed a bug where new players that become a supporter before joining the server would spawn on top of the spawn building rather than in the tutorial.

You no longer see your own join message (to reduce clutter in sign-in messages)

Added new command /pinfo where you can get details on a player. This replaces /lastlogin /firstlogin and /checkban.

Added new shortcut /p for /pinfo

Added new shortcut /v for /visit

Added new shortcut /g for /goto (Moderators only)

Added new shortcut /m for /mode (Admins only)

Many other small changes that I forgot to write down...

28-Oct-2011

Fixed some more "chest shop" names to make more sense.

Added an alternate verification method for players who want to join the site without their Minecraft password.